This invention relates to apparatus for and to a method of binding a book, and more particularly to apparatus for and to a method of binding a single copy of a printed on demand using a binding system referred to as perfect binding.
With the advent of on demand book printing or publishing systems, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,465,213, single copies of any one of a multiplicity of books can be printed on demand in a matter of a few minutes. However, to make the on demand printed book copy attractive to consumers, it must be bound in a fashion that is similar to binding systems now in use for binding traditionally printed books available from publishers. Such binding systems for on demand printed books must have the same "feel" to the reader and must be of equal durability. Oftentimes, bookstores sell better quality paperbound books referred to as "trade" paperback books and these trade paperback books are bound in soft paper covers (as distinguished from hard cover books). It has been a long-standing problem in the on demand book publishing field to readily bind on demand printed books with a binding system that is as acceptable to the reader as perfect bound books, but which can accommodate a relatively wide range of book thickness (i.e., a wide range of the number of pages in the book to be bound), which has supplies requiring little or no maintenance during periods of non-use of the on demand book publishing system, which permanently binds the pages to one another and to the cover, which is immediately ready for use, which does not require overly complicated and expensive binding equipment, which does not require undue maintenance by the user of the on demand book publishing system, and which is economical to use.
In on demand book publishing systems, a variety of book binding systems have been used to bind the pages of a book being printed to the corresponding cover for that which is also printed on demand with the pages for the book. However, these prior book binding systems for on demand printing have been complicated and expensive, require that hot melt adhesives be maintained at temperature for long periods of time, require that the binding of the book be held in a compressed state for overly long periods of time to allow the pages to be permanently bound together and to the cover. In addition, it has been found that for a period of about 24 hours from binding, the pages of such on demand printed books will often come undone from the other pages and from the cover and thus it has been desirable to allow the bound books to sit for 24 hours or so prior to opening the pages of the book and particularly before bending the binding back on itself so as to aid in holding the book open to the page being read, as is common for readers to do with trade paperback books.
Reference may be made to such prior art patents as U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,149,288, 4,184,218, 4,923,351 and 5,350,268 which may be relevant to the present invention.